Cardinals clinch tie for second NL wild card

JAIME GARCIA homered off Bronson Arroyo and pitched into the seventh inning, helping the St. Louis Cardinals clinch a tie for the second NL wild card and spoil Dusty Baker's return from a mini-stroke with a 4-2 victory over the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Monday night.

The defending World Series champions have won 11 of 14 and led the Los Angeles Dodgers, playing at home later against San Francisco, by 2 1/2 games.

A loss by the Dodgers or another Cardinals win would wrap up a playoff spot for St. Louis and a visit to Atlanta for the wild-card game Friday.

Arroyo (12-10) threw 73 pitches while allowing three runs over five innings in a tuneup for the postseason. He topped 200 innings for the seventh time but is 0-3 in his last four starts.

The Reds are 96-64, tied with the Nationals for the best record in the National League with two games to go, and must finish ahead of Washington to get homefield advantage throughout the postseason after losing the season series.

Before the game, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was wary and noncommittal about whether the team would stick around and watch the end of the Giants-Dodgers game that could ignite a delayed celebration in an empty stadium.

"I'm not going there yet," Matheny said. "We've got to win, and I told you guys this before: It's not some sort of trickery going on, except with my own mind and with these guys, too.

"It's true, you have to just kind of play it out and don't get too far ahead of yourself."

Baker missed 11 games, including the NL Central clincher and Homer Bailey's no-hitter, while recovering from a stroke in a Chicago hospital that he had while being treated for an irregular heartbeat.

Garcia (7-7) made it 5-for-5 at the plate against Arroyo when he led off the third with a drive that just cleared the rightfield wall for his second career homer, although the perfect run ended when he flied out to right to end the fourth.

At Pittsburgh, Jeff Locke (1-3) allowed just two hits in picking up his first major league win and the Pirates topped Atlanta, 2-1, making the Braves the top wild-card team and clinching the division title for Washington. Starling Marte hit his sixth home run of the season and scored twice for Pittsburgh.

* At Chicago, the Cubs got their 100th loss of the season when Lucas Harrell (11-11) threw six shutout innings to lead the Houston Astros to a 3-0 win.

Four Houston pitchers combined on a two-hitter and Fernando Martinez homered for the third consecutive game. The Astros avoided their franchise-record 107th loss in the opener of their final series in the NL before they move to the American League next season.

* At Milwaukee, Rickie Weeks, Carlos Gomez and Jonathon Lucroy all homered as the Brewers topped the San Diego Padres, 5-3.

* At Miami, Giancarlo Stanton hit his 37th homer, and Rob Brantly hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning to help the Marlins beat the New York Mets, 3-2.